Episode 246: Brushing Teeth and Busting Myths | Dr. Molly Brinkmann | Veterinarian & TikTok Influencer
What do dog dental care, viral TikToks (@drmollysays), and vet burnout all have in common? Dr. Molly Brinkmann. In this episode, Kara sits down with Dr. Molly to explore what it’s really like to be a modern veterinarian, from navigating tough choices about pet care to the misconceptions people still have about vet medicine. They talk about career paths in animal health, pet owner mistakes (hello, brush your dog’s teeth), and how she’s using her social media platform to educate and entertain millions. Whether you’re an aspiring vet, a curious pet parent, or just a fan of funny animal content, this episode offers insight into the messy, rewarding, and very human world behind animal care.
“The world is your oyster in veterinary medicine. You can work as so much more than a vet. If you love animals you can find your space.”
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Follow along using the Transcript
Chapters:
(00:01:40) Becoming a Veterinarian: Childhood Dreams and Career Path
(00:04:00) Large Animal Surgery to Small Animal Practice: Why She Pivoted
(00:07:30) Euthanasia, Ethics, and the Hardest Part of Vet Life
(00:10:15) Common Misconceptions About Veterinarians and Vet Costs
(00:12:45) Pet Dental Health: Why Brushing Your Dog’s Teeth Matters
(00:15:30) TikTok Fame and Using Social Media to Educate Pet Owners
(00:18:00) Career Paths in Veterinary Medicine Beyond Being a Vet
(00:21:00) Understanding Pet Anxiety, Genetics, and Mental Health in Dogs
(00:24:30) Are Talking Button Dogs Real? Training, Behavior, and Communication
(00:27:15) The Power of Female Mentorship in Veterinary Medicine
(00:30:00) What It Means to Be a Powerful Lady as a Vet, Mom, and Leader
Human or general public perception of veterinary medicine and veterinarians has shifted in recent years because I think there's just some general skepticism about medicine in general and I think some of that is probably warranted
as a big idea. That's Dr. Molly Brinkman. I'm Kara Duffy, and this is The Powerful Ladies Podcast.
Welcome to the Powerful Ladies Podcast. Thank you. Thanks for having
me.
Let's jump right in and tell everyone your name, where you are in the world, and what you're up to.
So my name is Dr. Molly Brinkman. I am a veterinarian and I live and practice in Franklin, Tennessee, which is about 30 minutes south of Nashville, which is actually the capital.
Nashville is the capital of Tennessee. Yes. Yes. And it, when I was in high school, I grew up here and it was like just the capital. It wasn't a cool place to go. Yeah. So no, no one in Franklin like went to Nashville to do fun things, but that has changed a lot,
of course, I wanna know if 8-year-old you thought that this would be your life today?
In some ways, yes, because I have always known I would be a veterinarian. I I think in kindergarten they made us like announce what we were gonna be when we grew up and this was definitely it. I had a connection with animals from a very young age. My parents always say, spooky with the animals.
But yeah, loved them. Grew up around them. Grew up on a farm sometimes with my grandparents. So big animals, small animals, dogs and cats everywhere. And always knew this is what I wanted to do. Be a doctor. So that part is not surprising, but, life never goes the way you expect.
So definitely some curve balls.
And I've read that you thought that you were gonna be a large animal veterinarian. I did. And when did you make the pivot into what we know as veterinarians, like who have dogs and cats and are going to them way more than we expect to?
Yeah. So in vet schools, some vet schools have you track, so you decide I wanna do large or small animal.
I went to ut Tennessee in Knoxville and we didn't track, so I went through clinics and did small and large animal clinical rotations in vet school. I thought I was gonna be a large animal vet. I at one point wanted to be a horse surgeon and I actually pursued that after vet school. I went out to Western Colorado and did an equine surgical internship at a prominent practice there.
So a lot of big fancy horses, a lot of surgery on horses. And in veterinary school you can apply and do internships. You don't have to. But you usually have to do that if you wanna specialize and be a surgeon or another type of specialist. So that's why I went there, thought I was gonna be a horse surgeon, but while I was there, I, they also had a small animal clinic and I really loved doing both.
And so I decided not to specialize and I loved the practice and the area where we were, and they asked me to stay. So then I worked there. For a second year, just as a regular associate, and I did large and small and loved both and thought okay, I can just do both. And that changed about two years later after we moved back to Tennessee.
I transitioned from large to small which happens a lot. A lot of vets go from start in large animal or mixed practice, and they end up in the small animal world.
Do you ever have somebody bring an animal you would never expect?
Where I work now, no. 'cause we really only see dogs and cats.
We, if we know someone who like, has a goat that needs to be seen and it's like somebody's friend, we might see like an occasional goat or like a rabbit or something like that. But not really anything unexpected. I have had a job that was exotic too, and so we saw just anything, some anyone brought.
So I saw like some kangaroos. Wallabies and reptiles and crazy things like that. That's fun. Yeah, it seems fun. It's not fun when you don't actually really know how to treat all of those animals, so it can be stressful. And I'm not a fan of snakes it's not my, yeah. It's not my like instinct to say the snake.
So
you're like, it's okay if that one goes. Yeah. I dunno, someone else do this so well. So many people love animals and they think, oh, I love animals. I should be a vet. And then the realities of what vets have to do and the choices you have to make are very different than just loving on animals. How have you.
Adopted to the choices you have to make that are sometimes very hard and not the ones you would choose to make in your, civilian mindset. Yeah. How do you adopt to that being a vet?
Yeah. The pro our profession is a wonderful one. I love my job and it is extremely rewarding, and I do get to see cute dogs and cats and puppies and kittens at my job.
But it is not just, loving animals and it is, there are really hard decisions we have to make. We euthanize pets all the time. We have to work a lot with people and I think sometimes, yeah, that's something people don't maybe realize how much human to human interaction there is in veterinary medicine and how important that is, and it can make your job.
A lot harder or easier depending on how well you can handle that. And yeah, humans are messy and they're, some of them are evil and humans do bad things and the animals that they have and are supposed to take care of, sometimes they don't. And we're the people who ultimately have the responsibility to advocate for those animals.
And sometimes that's despite their owners, they're humans. And that, that's a really hard part of veterinary medicine. And sometimes we have to do things that we wouldn't choose for our pets. Because that's all an owner can do. Or there's financial constraints or they just, don't make decisions the same way that we do.
So it's, that's, yeah, that's, that really is a really hard part of veterinary medicine.
Have you ever had to take a pet away from an owner? So I've never
physically taken a pet away from an owner. I have reported animal abuse. I have done gone through that. And I have been involved with like rescue organizations who are involved in actual seizure of animals who are being abused or neglected. Yeah. But not in practice.
Yeah. Thankfully. Yeah. How many animals do you own personally? So this is
a great question and people sometimes are surprised. I have one dog his name, my husband and I have a dog. He's actually laying behind me.
His name is Cooper. And he hears me, he's what? What do you want? He's a 9-year-old lap and he has been my husband and my dog. We got him for our first anniversary. So he's been with us pretty much our whole marriage and he's. Our, like heart dog, really special pet. But yeah, he's our only pet right now.
I'm not allowed to have cats because my husband is super allergic, which is really sad for me. But for now, you're still at work? Yes, but we have human children, so we have our hands full. No more dogs right now. Now?
Yeah. How many kids do you have? We have, so
we have two living children. I have a 4-year-old, we have a 4-year-old boy and a 2-year-old girl.
And we, our first child actually passed away. That was about five years ago. I'm so sorry. Sorry. Thank you. Yeah, so I've had three babies, and we have two living children with us, and four and two is both really. Challenging ages. So we're a little crazy over here, but we're Yeah.
They're
You're on your toes. Yeah. Yeah. And you're the dog. You're like, can you watch them please? You're the babysitter now. Yes. He literally does babysit sometimes. Because he'll lemme know
if something's going on.
Yeah. What are some things that you wish for sure your human patients, but people in general knew about?
Veterinarian medicine that you are amazed that they don't know or you're frustrated. That continues to be a point of conversation.
Yeah. Oh man, we could talk about this the whole time. I sadly I think that kind of human or general public perception of veterinary medicine and veterinarians has shifted in recent years because I think there's just some general skepticism about medicine in general.
I think some of that is probably warranted as a big idea. But in veterinary medicine, we are combating this idea that vets are out for your money. And, we're in bed with like drug companies and big pharma and food companies especially, and we just taking unnecessary money, doing unnecessary things.
And it's a huge obstacle in practice because, Dr. Google is a real thing and there's so much information on the internet and some very compelling and convincing information that sometimes is dangerous and very wrong. And so I do feel like that's a battle that the previous generations of veterinarians didn't have.
They had other battles. But I wish that sort of the general public could better understand that. We got into this profession not to make money because we don't make a lot of money like other medical professionals. And so if they could just understand that we really are just advocating for the best of their pet based on the information we have that is based in science we could all treat our patients better.
Yeah. Is there a habit that you wish more pet owners had? Making sure teeth are brushed or. Yes. What is the thing that you're like, I wish they were just handling this on a regular basis.
Yeah, you've nailed it. Dentistry dentistry is a, I said this in an Instagram story the other day.
We wear a lot of hot hats. Veterinarians wear lots of hats, right? So we, in human medicine, everybody's so specialized, and so you have a dentist and an optometrist and a, there's radiologists and on call, all those things. And some of those specialties exist in veterinary medicine. The general practitioner, the general veterinary practitioner has to wear most of those hats every day.
And dentistry is something a lot of vets haven't had a lot of training in. And so that has trickled down to poor client education. But that's changing and we're doing a better job of that. And dentistry is something I love and I love to educate clients about it because dental health is important and poor dental health affects a lot of other things and makes dogs painful and uncomfortable.
And so I wish we could just snap our fingers and change everyone's mentality on dental health and dogs and cats so that people would not think it's a crazy idea to brush your dog or your cat's teeth every day. 'Cause that, like we do, it's really the best thing for them and it's doable.
If once you get them used to it, it's really not a big deal.
Yeah. Something that I'm amazed by is how many people I run into that delay or don't spay or neuter still, and I'm like, I thought we were beyond this.
Yeah. So it, that's a very, another very hot topic in veterinary medicine and the answers are honestly becoming more gray even.
The research is becoming more gray. There's long explanations, but for a long time we stayed and neutered everybody at six months. For, for control of the population. And because our shelters were overrun, they're still overrun. But in a lot of, kind of suburban areas where dogs are staying in homes and cats are in indoors.
The population control in those areas is less of an issue and science, there's some newer research developing that says that in some large breed dogs, there may be some benefits to waiting later. To stay and neu to them. And whenever new research comes along like that, we have to, especially something so well established, because there is evidence that female dogs.
Are less likely to get breast cancer if you go ahead and stay them at six months. And that's very like that. We know that. That's true.
And
Especially females, it's very great 'cause we have to balance those two pieces of information that science has given us and owners come in to talk about this with ideas, and this is where the internet gets tricky because yes, there is some fact.
That may be the science is changing, but that right now really only applies to a smaller population of dogs. And it's not across the board. And a lot of our dogs and cats need to still be stayed at six months. And so I do think that trend of let's just wait and I don't really know why or which dogs is probably con contributing to our shelter crises that are happening in different areas.
For sure.
Yeah. The, my, the first dog that I had as on my own made it almost 18 years. Oh wow. What was it? Thank you. Schnoodle Schnauzer Poodle Mix. Yeah. Yeah, he traveled the world. He's been to more countries than goodness people I know. But, and the dog I have now she was literally left at a friend's car door Oh.
When he ran in to sign papers, like in a box, and I was so thankful. Yeah. She was probably about 10 weeks, eight to 10 weeks when I got her. What is she's super mut. I've done the DNA tests, which I know we're very controversial. Yes. Yeah. Yeah. But it's so interesting with the, like the embark DNA test, you, they give you a whole family tree.
And I know there's controversy about how good they are. 'cause they're having more and more people do it, so it's getting better and better. But they, she's supposed to be mostly poodle and pitbull. And when you see her, she looks like she might be a Jack Russell terrier mix and Yeah.
There's no Jack Russell in here based on this test. Yeah.
It's funny, I always have theories about dog mixed breed dogs that come in if they don't know, oh, what they are. And we all like guess before they, if they are gonna do the DNA testing. And I we're wrong a lot because I just think when you start mixing the breeds, their characteristics can change so much and you don't, like afterwards you're like, okay, maybe I see it, but it doesn't make sense at first.
Yeah.
We were even looking at like her different characteristics. Like she has. Like Web Feet, which only a few breeds do, but none of those breeds showed up on the DNA. Yeah. Yeah. It's just, it's so funny.
And, most breeds come, there's only a few truly like foundational breeds.
So a lot of breeds come from other breeds. And so there's a lot of kind of mixtures that we, we don't know what that's gonna ha, what that's gonna make. And so we're finding out, it's cool.
Yeah. What encouraged you to start doing all of your social media posting? That's how I found you could see these great, yeah.
Funny and informative reels and posts. Yeah. Were you like bored at work one day? Were you like, I have got to start educating the public? What was the trigger?
Yeah, so I, it's funny. I remember having a conversation with one of my friends. I'm like, yeah, there's all these influencers about medical stuff.
Like I follow, dermatologists and estheticians about skin things and they're like really helpful if you can get all this information so easily. And I'm like, there needs to be like more vets that do that because we have to combat Dr. Google. We gotta tell people what the real deal is and.
She was like, yeah, you should do that. So I was like, yeah, I'll just start making videos. So that's how it started and it just limped along for a while and I was doing mostly educational stuff. And then, I just started having all these crazy ideas in my head about, oh, that'd be so funny to talk about, be like dog breeds if they were people.
And so that's what, that's when I really started to go viral or whatever because of those breed videos. And so then it just became really big, really fast. It's oh, okay. I like have a real platform for this. So then it's just gone from there. But it's
been fun. And how has your team been on board to participate?
Yeah, it's funny, I've I've changed jobs a lot the last few years, and so I've been in two different practices while I've been doing this. And the one I'm at now is great. Everyone thinks it's really funny and fun and they're like, oh, let me take a picture of you with that dog, or whatever. They help me.
Which is great. My last job was probably less supportive and that's okay. But yeah, there's a couple texts who are like, I don't wanna be on your social media. I'm like, fine. But most everybody like really enjoys doing it and being a part of it.
Yeah. It's fun for somebody who is considering becoming a vet or thinking that's where they need to, make a career pivot.
Yeah.
That's, there's a lot of schooling education in that piece. If that's. Maybe not the path they want. Like how else can they be involved in a veterinary office? Yeah. And be participating. What are the other roles or jobs that could exist?
Yeah, I, the world really is your oyster in veterinary medicine because it is a medical facility, but there's a lot of administration and a lot of management that has to happen. And then just like in human medicine, you can work in the veterinary field in sales and marketing. Pr, all those things.
You can work for drug companies and food companies. But in the actual, like in a practice in the, in an actual hospital, you have doctors, you have nurses, our veterinary technicians, and then assistants and then we have front desk staff, our client service representatives. It's like the new posh name for them.
And so they they're, who deal with the people, they're really like the heroes of the vet clinic because they're like the frontline with those humans we've talked about. But it's, I, a lot of people really like that job and there's certain people who are really good at that job, and then there's management positions and different, you can be a medical director or a lot of people in that position have some background in medicine but yeah, there's a ton of ways you can get into work in a clinic without being a vet or even a vet tech for sure.
And then there's big hospitals that have even more. Billing roles and client communication roles, things like that.
With your practice, you have a pretty routine schedule, or does it ever get outta control? Yeah oh,
it all, it gets outta control, but we have a schedule template that we try to follow.
A lot of times if someone calls, then it's. Client that we know and their dog just ate a bunch of chocolate or raisins or something, then we're gonna get 'em right in and make them bonnet or whatever we need to do. Yeah. If they're having something urgent. And that always, messes with the day, but it comes with the territory.
And we try to do that within reason, we've tried not to overload our staff and take care of our patients the best we can. And the good thing is we have ER clinics, we have emergency clinics in our area. We have three pretty close. And so we can always funnel patients if they need more care or more urgent care to those places.
But yeah, we have a pretty regular schedule. I have a surgery day, so I do surgery one day a week and then see appointments the other days and we schedule a lunch. Like I, I technically have a lunch break every day. I do a lot of work during lunch, but that's my choice. And and yeah, we see clients every, anywhere from 15 to 45 minutes, they're scheduled for, they're never only there for 15 minutes, but that's how we do the schedule.
Yeah.
Yeah.
I also think it's really interesting how some people, dogs in particular some dogs just seem really easy. Yeah. Like my dog, for example, really easy. And then I have some other friends who, there's, they have dogs who are on mental medications now. Not just physical and there's more anxiety and there's depression showing up in animals.
How has the mental care of dogs and cats shifted? Yeah. And. How much do we really need to be concerned or keep an eye out for that for our own dogs
and cats? Yeah. Yeah. I think some of the shift, just in a big way in, in veteran medicine is that dogs and cats have come inside over the last 30 years.
They're inside now, and that's good for them in a lot of ways, but I do think that has led to some increased anxiety because these. Dogs are getting a lot less exercise, and, less mental stimulation because they're sitting inside all day in a crad all day. And same with cats, they're not out hunting like their instinct.
So just, and this is just me saying there's no necessarily science that says this, but I think that has contributed to it for sure. I think some of the breeding that is going on. Some of the breeds, some of the poodle mixes that are really popular right now.
Whatever it is about some of those breed combinations is leading to a lot of just, I think, genetic anxiety. They're just predisposed to it, just like some people are. Yeah. Some chemical imbalances probably. When you mix a dog who's breeding makes them more prone to having anxiety issues and then you put them in a high-rise apartment all day, it's a recipe for that.
And we recognize that. And we see it. And veterinary behavior is a newer specialty in our field, and it's a super important one because of the rise of this. I think some of it too is because. People are looking at their pets more and so they're noticing these behaviors that are consistent with anxiety.
Anxiety is a lot of what we see and some fear, aggression sometimes. But but yeah, I think they're inside. I think they're not getting as much exercise. I think some of the breeding has to do with it. And we, we have behaviorists and veterinarians are getting more education on how to help talk clients through working through that.
There's really good trainers in the world, dog trainers who are not veterinarians, but have a lot of experience and a lot of training, and they really understand some dog psychology and behaviors and they are really. Good at helping people work through those things. There's a lot of bad ones, but there's some really good trainers.
Yeah.
Probably about 12, 15 years ago, I read a book called The Inside of a Dog. And it was from an anthropologist who allegedly was one of the first people to study dogs Anthropologically because Uhhuh, we just assumed we knew what they were all doing because they've been with us this whole time.
Yeah. And it was so interesting to see the things that we thought we knew answers to and what was confirmed and what was actually different than we expected. And we, they are so ingrained in our lives and you hear things like, a dog knows humans better than any other species. Because we all know that our dogs are actually trained us. Yeah. But yes, it's not gone the other way. There's a a string with a bell on it on my pantry that's just out of view. And my dog knows she goes up, hits it. She's I would a snack. You're like, oh, okay.
Yes. Meanwhile, I tell people all day, your dog has trained you well.
Yes. Every day.
Yeah. And then meanwhile, I have a bell by her water because she will finish the bowl of water and not make, not tell me at all.
Uhhuh.
And I'm like, can you ring the bell? Like I will refill it for you. He's no,
I don't care about that.
No. Whereas my other dog would flip the bowl and throw a fit if there wasn't any water.
Yeah. But I think what's what I'm so fascinated in is about the buttons where people are training their dogs to talk with the buttons. Yeah. What do you think about that? Is it real? Is it a sham? Should we all be doing it?
Should we all be doing it? No, I don't think so. Do we all have time to do that?
No, we don't. I have seen it. Yes, I know what you're talking about. I've seen like the tiktoks and the Instagram accounts. I, yeah, I think some of it is real. I think dogs have the ability to process some things, probably more than a lot of people realize. I think a lot of animals do. I do think we have to be really careful about anthropomorphizing dogs, because that.
That can lead to issues in treating them. Because people want to think about what their dog is doing in the context of what a human does, which is ironic for me to say, because I make skits about if dogs were people, what would they do? And I do very human things. But yeah, I think that's probably real to some degree.
I think there's probably some exaggeration in some of that, some of those videos. But yeah, I mean there's that. I don't know if you've ever read, I, of course, because I'm on. Being recorded. I can't remember the name of it, but there's a book about a horse. This is true. A horse who like went on tour around the US I think like in the twenties.
In the 1920s. And he could communicate. They, he, the guy that had him like trained him, I think he went to like fairs and he like trained him to communicate in a similar way. And yeah, so I think that there are some animals have, they just have a higher capacity to understand and figure all of that out.
Your average. Doodles not gonna be doing that. No matter how. I don't mean to hate on doodles. I get a bad rep for hating on doodles, but they're just really popular right now. Everybody has a doodle. But even like Cooper over here, I don't think you could figure that out.
I do think there are like such different dogs.
Like some dogs, you look in their face and their eyes, you. You were just a dog. Yeah. Then other dogs, you're like, oh, you might be part human. Okay.
Yes. For sure. For sure. Yeah. There are dogs who like understand a lot more than others. Absolutely.
Yeah. And like for my dog for example, like she's so intense with her communication.
Or like looks and her Yeah. She'll touch you. Yeah. There's like this level of depth where you're like, okay, chill out. Like I got it. Yeah. Very insistent. And I think
some of it. It's not necessarily that they're like smarter, I just think some dogs care more to connect and communicate with humans.
They have more of a drive for that.
Than others
for sure. And even within the same breed, like I, yeah, we have Cooper and I grew up with labs and my dad had hunting dogs and my dad used to just always say you can kind tell what the, a puppy, a lab puppy's personality is gonna be by how much they're paying attention to what the human is doing.
Because some of them just really don't care and they're not very, they're usually not very good dogs training wise, so
Yeah. They're too much like the next shiny object. Yeah. Yeah. For sure. I also think it might just be me as well as the human who has had both of these dogs. But both of my dogs tend to be very stubborn. And determined. And I'm like, okay. Yeah. Like the level of bossiness sometimes I'm impressed by.
Yeah.
Yep. And that is
very true of a lot of dog breeds. And there are consistencies within dog breeds. Sometimes people get offended on my social media, say I'm vilifying chihuahuas.
'cause I portray them as like sassy. But they're sassy and that's okay. They're, but that's just how they're
Yeah, I love them, but they're spicy. Yeah, no. A friend of mine has a deer chihuahua, I think it's called, technically it's like a, as a brown markings or something. Okay. I'm not sure why. It's not the regular looking chihuahua like Elridge chihuahua uhhuh and, but we're totally confident that his voice sounds like Antonia Banderas.
And he is very sophisticated and he holds himself in a certain way, and he's very posh. He needs his jackets. He gets cold yes he's bougie.
He's the bougie chi. There are a lot of bougie chihuahuas. That is a thing. They demand all of those things. A stroller.
Yeah. Which I never, I live in Southern California now, and when I moved here I was amazed that I like had to run to the mall for something.
And the number of dogs and strollers I saw. Yeah. I was okay, like some of the stereotypes are real. This is amazing.
Yes. I have seen that there. And there's a lot of that here too. Like in Nashville.
Yeah. When you look back at your journey, how have powerful women gotten you to where you are and supported you along your way?
Yeah, so I have a lot of powerful women in my family who have inspired and encouraged me and supported me. My mom is one of them. Both my parents are, have been just really supportive of my goals and my dreams. And then I have two sisters, and so there's a lot of women in my family. And I have aunts and a really special grandmother who's Lottie, who's still with us, thank goodness.
She just turned 88 and amazing. Yeah. So I have been surrounded by women my whole life and my, both of my sisters do really cool things in their life and have always been. Really driven and driven. My mom taught special ed for 30 years and which was just a really, like special job and my, my mom and my dad.
But my mom as a woman has, I grew up with her who, she's just constantly helping other people and supporting people and looking for ways to help. Yeah. And that just has shaped who I am, just like having that example. And my dad was an entrepreneur and so that combination I think was a lot of how I got to where I am.
And then in my career, it's just been all, the veterinary field is becoming a it is a woman led field now. And as far as numbers and I've learned from a lot of amazing female veterinarians. I. I was under two female or surgeons in my internship. One of whom is a good friend of mine now, and she was new to the, she was just out of her residency when we worked together, and so I went through that with her and just really inspired by how fast she's become like a really.
Talented, well-known surgeon. So yeah, there's been women everywhere, which is great.
When you think of the words powerful, and ladies, what do those words mean to you? And then when they're put next to each other do their definitions change?
I, they can, they are often synonymous because I think all the things that women do and are capable of doing. Can all be very powerful. And when I think of the word powerful, I don't think about, a woman or a man. I think about what that looks like as far as leading people and inspiring people and, making change. And I think when you have, when you think about women who are powerful, it is special because we, being women.
There's just so many different things we can do. We can be moms and have powerful careers and we can lead people in, in positions of power. But I think because of, because we are women, we have the ability to do it in a nurturing and compassionate way that I think is unique to women. Yeah. And and so I.
I love being able to be a woman in a leadership position for that reason.
How has becoming a mother changed your approach to power? Oh man. There's a lot of power struggle at my house as
a mom with my 4-year-old and my 2-year-old. Yeah. Being a mom teaches you so much, but I think I. It's hard to, it's hard to be a parent at all.
And you think you're gonna have kids and just, I'll figure it out. We'll figure that out. We'll, it'll be fine. My kid won't be like that. I won't have difficult children. But they are, they're all difficult in different ways. And you have to learn how to lead, help lead your children with your spouse.
If you have one and. That is a learning process and you don't do it well at first. I still don't do it well all the time. But it is another example of leading with compassion and and tenderness and that is the best way to do it. And that, and I experience seeing that, when I lead.
Empathy and compassion with my children, we're gonna all do better than just telling them what to do.
We ask everyone on the Powerful Ladies Podcast where they put themselves on the Powerful Ladies scale. If zero is average everyday human and 10 is the most powerful lady you can imagine, where would you put yourself today and on average?
Oh man. I would say I am definitely not a 10 because I have a lot of. Goals and aspirations that I haven't gotten to that would, I would probably make me more powerful. But, I guess it depends on the context, but I guess I, I'm above a five because I have gotten to where I am in my career, and I'm hoping to be, leading a practice soon, and so that'll make my power a little bit higher. But I do manage two human children, so let's say at least a six or a seven.
Yeah. Yeah. Until they're taking it all and you're like, oh, I want again. Yeah.
Yeah, for sure.
Yeah. We've also been asking everyone what is on your wishlist? What are you trying to manifest?
This is a powerful community with random connections, and what do you need? What do you want?
Yeah. So I, when I started this crazy funny social media thing, I didn't really have an idea of what it could become. But now all of a sudden, like it's a real thing and I feel this responsibility to do something productive with it.
And so I have made a lot of connections, a lot of them with other powerful women in the last few months. I'm talking with some agencies about representation, to work through some things and I have goals and ideas about how to podcast and digital content for pet owners and just helping people communicate with clients better and lead people better.
And I'm still learning all of that. But yeah, I'm trying to like figure out where exactly I want my platform to go and what I wanna use it for. And so that's where I'm at outside of like my job, but my job is more important than that and it's in a pivotal moment of potential practice ownership in the future.
And that's my ultimate goal. And that's a big step too, and super excited about that.
Yeah, love that. Yeah. Everyone who wants to follow you, support, you get all your knowledge and your funny reels as well, where can they find, follow and support you?
Yeah, so I am on TikTok and I am on Instagram right now.
And my name, my handle is Dr. Molly SAYS for both of them. And yeah, you will find, you just never know what you're gonna find there. Maybe some thrift store clothing finds funny dog and cat videos, and hopefully plenty of education sprinkled in there.
Thank you so much for being Yes to me and the powerful ladies and sharing your wisdom and time with us today.
Thank you so much for having me. It was great to meet you.
All. The links that connect with Molly, her Instagram, and TikTok are in our show notes@thepowerfulladies.com. Subscribe to this podcast wherever you're listening, and please leave us a rating and review. Join us on Instagram at Powerful Ladies, and if you're looking to connect directly with me, visit kara duffy.com or Kara Duffy on Instagram.
I'll be back next week with a brand new episode. Until then, I hope you're taking on being powerful in your life. Go be awesome and up to something you love.
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Episode 192: Creating a Viral TikTok Product Business with Abby Michaelsen
Episode 235: Reb Masel | Lawyer, TikTok Creator, Podcast Host of Rebuttal
Episode 51 : Brooke Butler | Emergency Veterinarian
Instagram: drmollysays
Facebook: drmollysays
TikTok: drmollysays
Email: drmollysays@gmail.com
Created and hosted by Kara Duffy
Audio Engineering & Editing by Jordan Duffy
Production by Amanda Kass
Graphic design by Anna Olinova
Music by Joakim Karud
